YV&C News Desk wrote: Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

YV&C News Desk wrote: Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

YV&C News Desk wrote: Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

YV&C News Desk wrote: Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

YV&C News Desk wrote: Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

YV&C News Desk wrote: Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

YV&C News Desk wrote: Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it?s also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

Roland Schwara of Water Sports Ha’apai specialises in diving the
volcanoes and oceanic caves of the Ha’apai group. When I rang Roland
last, he’d just got back from diving. His divers had swum with humpback
whales. “We were on scuba and the whales came to within three metres of
us. This was amazing, as they don’t normally come so close when we’re
on scuba” said Roland.

“There’s two main volcanoes that we dive
around: Kao is an extinct volcano with a 1046 metre cone and is made of
back volcanic rock while the active volcano Tofua is surrounded by
beautiful coral walls. The visibility at Kao is usually an outstanding
70 metres and there’s a hotspring (underwater hot water vent) at Tofua
which is an exciting dive. Some very unusual life gathers around these
hot water vents. Both dives offer cathedral like cave dives!

There’s
lots of great rock cods, manta and eagle rays, napoleon wrasse, turtle,
giant tunas and trevally. These two dives are suitable for experienced
divers only due to 40 metre depths and sometimes we get strong
currents.” says Roland.

Rolands career in diving started while
he was in the German army where he dived in both fresh and salt water.
Later, he travelled to Australia and on to New Zealand where he scored
a job supervising a group of marine biologists studying corals in
Tonga.

It was during this project, whose aim it was to
research and protect coral reefs, that Roland found a series of huge
underwater caves, possibly the biggest of their kind in the South
Pacific! He stayed on in Tonga, keen to explore these mysterious caves.

Watersports
Ha‘apai organise dive safaris to the whole of the Ha’apai group with
overnight stays on uninhabited islands and atolls. The volcano diving
trip is a must for experienced divers. All activities start from their
base on Lifuka Island near the ‘Niu’akalo’ hotel. Roland and his
partner Ofa can arrange your accommodation, from good value guest
houses to luxury beach resorts.

They have activities for non
divers such as horse riding, volcano trekking, kayaking, game fishing
and wind surfing. Roland currently operates two dive boats, both have
VHF radios, GPS, fish finder, first aid and emergency gear.

Tonga
is an excellent dive trip for those especially interested in safe
oceanic cave and deep diving. This combined with the chance of
snorkelling with humpbacks makes for a great adventure.

And
enjoy the Tongan food: suckling pig, chicken and raw fish marinated in
coconut milk and seaweed called ‘limu fuofua’ or corned beef and
coconut milk wrapped and cooked in taro leaves, a local favourite.

I
would recommend spending a few days diving at Vavau, with Dolphin
Pacific Diving followed by several days ‘adventure’ diving with Roland
in the Ha’apai group. This would make for an excellent trip.
Alternatively, you could book onto a liveaboard diving vessel.

For
those interested in general ‘easy going reef diving’ while staying at a
beautiful resort, I would recommend diving with Happy Ha’apai Divers at
the Sandy Beach Resort.

The Sandy Beach Resort has accommodation right on the coral lagoon with good coral right off the beach.

If
you arrange your dive trip during the whale season, you have an
excellent chance of swimming with the whales. If your diving with Water
Sports Ha’apai or Happy Ha’apai Divers, your well placed geographically
to see and swim with the whales. (June to October) is the whale season
with (July to September) being the best time.

Snorkelling with
humpback whales is one of life’s greatest experiences. If there’s an
aquatic substitute for base jumping this would be it for me. When you
see those humpback whales flying through the ocean, pectoral fins
outstretched, three abreast, your heart races and one is living life to
the max.

LiveaboardsThere’s several liveaboards that operate from Vavau & Nukualofa.

One
liveaboard is the converted 40 metre cruise boat; MV Oleanda which runs
dive trips from Vavau to Nukualofa. It’s operated by Wayne Fox who has
an excellent knowledge of diving in this region. Trips are usually
about 7 days and run on demand. www.coralislandcruises.com

Royal Sunset Scuba Diving at Tongatapu also have a liveaboard, the 51ft impetuous which runs occasional trips to the Ha’apai’s

Here are some dives offered by Roland:

The Great Magic Wall of Lolani’:
With only a small entrance tunnel, four metres long, at a depth of 26
metres, you enter one of the biggest limestone caves. An amazing fifty
metres long, its also 20 metres wide and 20 metres high. You spend most
of your time at 26 to 29 metres looking down through the gin clear
water at the caves floor which lies at 50 metres and you get that
awesome feeling of gliding along under the roof of a huge church
cathedral. Inside the cave live flashlight fishes, reef sharks and the
two metre grouper. When Roland showed this cave to the US and Japanese
scientists, who were exploring the whole South Pacific’ for famous
caves, they were stunned. This dive is for experienced divers.

Ava Mea Drift Dive: A dynamic drift dive between the islands of Uoleva and Tatafa. There
are two entry points into a two kilometre long channel. One entry spot
is in the middle of the channel where the currents is not too strong.
There are beautiful coral gardens along the whole dive from 8 to 18
metres with currents of two to four knots. The dive is like an
underwater flight through an untouched underwater paradise with lots of
reef and schooling fishes. The second entry is a drift dive suitable
for highly experienced divers only, as the current can reach eight
knots near Tatafa island. Here you’ll experience an ultimate current
ride flying past hundreds of barracuda. This drift dive is for highly
experienced divers.

Lolani’s Labyrinth: With
ten caves and tunnels including two that are 30 metres long. Most have
extra exits to the reef above which makes them safe cave dives. This
dive is five nautical miles off Lifuka island. The reef top has superb
plate corals at three metres. Inside the caves, you can see flashlight
fishes, spiny lobsters and moray eels. This is also an excellent night
dive where you can see rare crabs, lobsters and sleeping parrotfish.
Day dives are to made to 25 metres and 15 metres at night. This dive is
also for the experienced.

The Grand Canyons of Nukupuke:
The reef is like a gigantic canyon between what looks like underwater
mountains. You feel as if your flying over underwater canyons and
theres lots of coral, reef and schooling fishes down to 30 metres.
Occasionally there’s lots of reef sharks, leopard sharks, barracuda and
turtles. From July to October you can dive with humpback whales.

The ‘Great Green Wall of Ha’ano’: At
the northern end of Ha’ano island there’s a amazing dropoff from seven
to 150 metres with luxuriant soft and hard corals on the reef top.
There’s lots of excitement diving these mega drop offs, with that
special feeling of the unknown. This dive starts by swimming through a
cave from seven to 25 metres, then exiting onto a wall covered in green
algae which hangs like wineyard grapes. The algae comes and goes from
time to time. This dive is for experienced divers as it’s usually dived
to 40 metres.

The Big Coral Arch of Ofolanga: A
superb dive, this cave is at the depth of 26 metres. The cave is 20
metres wide and 15 metres high. It offers divers artistic views of
streaming light, sprinkled with tropical fish.

About Tony KaracsonyiTony Karacsonyi is a professional marine photographer who has been recognised globally for his exciting images. Marine photography has taken Tony to some of the world’s great places such as Papua New Guinea’s: Siassi, Trobriand and D’Entrecasteaux Islands,Tonga, Great Barrier Reef, Sabah, Ningaloo Reefs and Australia’s Coral Sea. In 1998, he was awarded with the prestigious Australian Geographic “Photographer of the Year“, for photography on giant cuttlefish and won several international awards, including a ‘runner up’ position in the “Wildlife Photographer of The Year” award in London, during 1996, 1997, 1998.

Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

#6

YV&C News Desk commented on 7 Dec 2005

Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

#5

YV&C News Desk commented on 7 Dec 2005

Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

#4

YV&C News Desk commented on 6 Dec 2005

Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

#3

YV&C News Desk commented on 6 Dec 2005

Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

#2

YV&C News Desk commented on 6 Dec 2005

Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it's also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

#1

YV&C News Desk commented on 6 Dec 2005

Swimming into a small entrance tunnel at a depth of 26 meters, you ener one of the biggest oceanic limestone caves in the South Pacific Ocean. Fifty meters long, it?s also 20 meters wide and 20 meters high. The cave is teeming with flashlight fishes, reef sharks and a two meter grouper.

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